The Art of Nicola Samori

Does Nicola Samori ever underwhelm? The Italian painter and sculptor caught my attention some two years ago, when I stumbled upon his work on Artsy. Samori creates dark, Baroque-inspired oil paintings by layering and fusing images on canvas, wood or other objects. His work stems from fear, and his process involves "skinning" his painted figures with a palette knife or thinner and painting over the surfaces multiple times to achieve deep-seated results.

"Peeling off the faces make it possible for all the neglected parts of a representation to come to light and, as far as I am concerned, they all work even better without any kind of control," Samori explained in a 2012 interview. "I don't know what it is that gives a person their identity, it's such complex matter. I definitely don't think a portrait can eventually give it back because you can always perceive its author behind its eyes; well, maybe others' portraits (even their removal, why not) can outline the author identity."

You can find more about Samori and his work here.

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Preserved tattoos of the dead

The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...

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